Olimpia had its first huddle, the first tip-off and the first field goal of its season, the latter scored by David McCormack on a dunk. It was just a scrimmage, against another Italian league team, Varese, at the end of the first week of hard work, Josh Nebo and Ousmane Diop were out, but everything else worked out well. The “game” was really four 10-minute short games, scored reset every ten minutes, no individual fouls were counted, only the penalty situations applied. It was a high-speed game, a lot of shooting and defensive pressure both sided of the floor. Olimpia scored 32 points in the first quarter and 30 in the last; 28 were scored in the third. All the periods were won, but Varese – with no Nico Mannion – was a serious opponent. The first starting line-up featured Leandro Bolmaro, Stefano Tonut, Shavon Shields, Nikola Mirotic and David McCormack. The EuroLeague rookie center displayed his motor and energy and also made a short roll jumper from the top of the key. Shields and Mirotic were the first to show some rhythm offensively. With two centers out, Zach LeDay and Willie Caruso also played at the 5; Coach Messina used also a smallball line-up with Causeur and Brooks next to Neno Dimitrijevic; the third period started with Dimitrijevic and Bolmaro on the court at the same time. The Argentinian showed a lot of aggressiveness at the defensive end of the floor, pressuring the ball to generate steals. He had a very solid game. Armoni Brooks missed his first shot, a three, then proceeded to make all of them to finish with some 15 points, going 6-for-7 from the field. Pippo Ricic also was sharp shooting the ball; Stefano Tonut finshed strong along Dimitrijevic in the fourth quarter. Next up is the first official game in Tortona next Wednesday.